Sawalha, Aseel, 1966-

Reconstructing Beirut : memory and space in a postwar Arab city / Aseel Sawalha.

1st ed.

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2010.

xiii, 176 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Jamal and Rania Daniel series in contemporary history, politics, culture, and religion of the Levant

Once the cosmopolitan center of the Middle East, Beirut was devastated by the civil war that ran from 1975 to 1991, which dislocated many residents, disrupted normal municipal functions, and destroyed the vibrant downtown district. The aftermath of the war was an unstable situation Sawalha considers "a postwar state of emergency," even as the state strove to restore normalcy. This ethnography centers on various groups' responses to Beirut's large, privatized urban-renewal project that unfolded during this turbulent moment. At the core of the study is the theme of remembering space. The official process of rebuilding the city as a node in the global economy collided with local day-to-day concerns, and all arguments invariably inspired narratives of what happened before and during the war. Sawalha explains how Beirut is invoked their past experiences of specific sites to vie for the power to shape those sites in the future. Rather than focus on a single site, the ethnography crosses multiple urban sites and social groups, to survey varied groups with interests in particular spaces. The book contextualizes these spatial conflicts within the discourses of the city's historical accounts and the much-debated concept of heritage, voiced in academic writing, politics, and journalism. In the afterword, Sawalha links these conflicts to the social and political crises of early twenty-first-century Beirut. -- Jacket.

9780292721876 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0292721870 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0292728816
9780292728813

Urban renewal Lebanon Beirut.
City planning Lebanon Beirut History 20th century.
Rénovation urbaine Liban Beyrouth.
City planning.
Economic history.
Urban renewal.
Politik
Stadtplanung
Stadtsanierung
Wirtschaftliche Lage
Libanesischer Bürgerkrieg
Gruppenidentität Stadtplanung Beirut.
Stadtplanung Gruppenidentität Beirut.
Wiederaufbau Bürgerkrieg Beirut.
Bürgerkrieg Wiederaufbau Beirut.
Städtebau.
Stadsförnyelse Libanon Beirut.
Stadsplanering Libanon Beirut historia 1900-talet.
Lebanon Economic conditions 1990-
Liban Conditions économiques 1990-
Lebanon.
Lebanon Beirut.
Beirut
Beirut Stadtentwicklung.
Libanon ekonomiska förhållanden 1990-

History.

Jamal and Rania Daniel series in contemporary history, politics, culture, and religion of the Levant.

Location: Library main 268716
Call No.: BIB 200589
Status: Available